Fintech News: July 29th, 2016

Every buzzword has its haters, and “fintech” is clearly no exception. This article jabs at companies who call themselves “fintech,” but who really just market existing financial services to a younger audience. The most impactful innovation takes place in the back offices of financial institutions, and most of these companies don’t call themselves fintech, but infrastructure. This columnist argues that back office innovators should drop the “fintech” label and avoid confusing everyone.

It’s time for a new kind of checking & savings account. These products, the bread-and-butter of traditional banks, have remained largely unchanged since they were invented. Here are some of the fintech startups looking to change that, by letting you split up your bank account for different purposes (vacation bank account, rent bank account), set up automatic savings deposits, and more.

According to McKinsey, fintech is moving up the value chain by working with banks instead of against them. Enablers are the new disruptors. The top category for enabling startups? Corporate and Investment Banking, where assets and relationships matter most. In this subsector, only 12% of startups are trying to disrupt existing business models, and most of these are blockchain solutions.

E*Trade acquired OptionsHouse, the discount brokerage known for its popularity with (not surprisingly) options traders. The deal is part of E*Trade’s strategic initiative to boost its offerings for derivatives traders. Many analysts predicted that 2016 would be a year of acquisitions for online brokerages, and with the sale of TradeKing earlier this year, it looks like they were right.